Pasta Soufflé

Once upon a time my mother made this dish when we were small and it became one of our favorite dishes.

So it was just logical that I prepared this dish as well when I had my own family – and my kids love it as much as me and my brothers did. It is really simple to prepare, ideal if you do not have enough time for cooking or, if your children are big enough, prepare it the evening before and let it finish by your children. If you have an oven with program timer you even can put it in the morning before you go to work and let the oven do its job until you return. You even can freeze it to cook it later.

As sausage I use an aromatic smoked pork sausage or cooked pork or turkey sausage. Basically you can use any sausage of your taste. If you like it more vegetarian style you can replace it by a small diced fresh tomato (remove the seeds), and a Zucchini and a small onion cut into small dices and prefried for a few minutes in some olive oil.

What you need:

500 gr Spirelli pasta
150 gr smoked pork sausage or smoked cooked sausage
200 gr grated cheese (Emmental or cheese mix)
1 cup bread crumbs
2 eggs
½ tsp. salt
1 pinch pepper
¼ tsp. fresh grated nutmeg
1 pinch sweet paprika powder
appr. 400 ml milk
some flakes of butter or margarine

How to prepare it:

Cook the pasta as indicate on the package al dente. Let cool.

Cut the sausage in dices, separate into two portions.

Grease a glass bowl or high baking dish and add 1/3 of the pasta. Add half of the sausage and some of the grated cheese. Cover with 1/3 of the pasta and add the rest of the sausage with some of the cheese. Add the rest of the pasta and slightly press down.

In a measuring cup combine the eggs and the milk. Add the spices and mix well.

Combine the bread crumbs with the rest of the cheese and cover the last layer of the pasta. Press down slightly leaving a “ditch” at the edge of the dish. Carefully pour the egg-milk mixture all around the ditch. At the end carefully pour some of the mixture over the cheese-bread crumbs.

Add some butter or margarine flakes on top.

Bake in the oven at 180º C for 45-50 minutes or until the top turned golden brown.